Oxnard Heads the List in Closed Meetings : Brown Act: Litigation under consideration and the larger size of the city account for the council’s hours spent in private sessions, an official says.

The Oxnard City Council spent 22 hours and 10 minutes in private meetings during a recent six-month period, leading the county’s five largest cities in time spent behind closed doors, according to a Times survey.

From May through October, the Camarillo City Council spent 17 hours and 36 minutes in closed sessions, followed by Simi Valley with 14 hours and 6 minutes, Ventura with 6 hours and 39 minutes and Thousand Oaks with 4 hours and 9 minutes.

The Camarillo City Council exceeded Oxnard in the percentage of time spent in private meetings with 26%, according to the survey, which looked only at regular council meetings and not special meetings such as budget and General Plan hearings.

Camarillo officials said the amount of time they spent in closed session may be high because the council sometimes eats dinner during the sessions.

Oxnard spent 21% of its time behind closed doors, followed by Simi Valley with 16%, Ventura with 11% and Thousand Oaks with 5%, according to the survey, which calculated meeting times from council minute reports.

The amount of time spent in closed meetings is directly related to such issues as the number of lawsuits facing the city, experience of council members and the city attorney’s interpretation of the state’s open-meetings law, according to attorneys for the five cities.

The amount of time the Ventura County Board of Supervisors spent in closed session could not be calculated because the clerk of the board does not keep track of it.

However, Richard Wittenberg, the county’s chief administrative officer, estimated that the board spends 5% to 10% of its time in private sessions.

Officials for the county and the five cities defend the amount of meeting time spent behind closed doors, saying the private sessions are needed to discuss sensitive issues.

Closed sessions are permitted under the 1953 Ralph M. Brown Act to allow public agencies to discuss such matters as litigation involving the city, personnel, contract disputes and real estate acquisitions. The law requires all other city business to be discussed in public.

A city with more experienced council members requires less time for staff members to explain complicated legal matters during closed sessions, according to attorneys for the cities.

“A sophisticated council doesn’t need a lot of time for explanations,” Thousand Oaks City Atty. Mark Sellers said.

In addition, a council will spend less time in private session if the city attorney advises it to discuss more city business in open session, the attorneys said.

“I have always taken a conservative view of what can go in closed session,” Ventura City Atty. Peter D. Bulens said. “If there is any doubt at all, I will be on the side of having it in the open.”

In Oxnard, the hottest campaign issue during the November election was the accusation by candidates that the council has a history of violating the Brown Act by making back-room deals with developers during closed sessions.

Donald Coleman, a Ventura County special assistant district attorney who investigates allegations of political improprieties, said he has investigated more allegations about Brown Act violations in Oxnard than in any other city in the county.

However, he has never charged a council member with such a violation.

In July, a grand jury accused the Oxnard City Council of violating the Brown Act by holding five or six private budget meetings in September and October of 1989.

The grand jury decided not to indict the council members because it said there was insufficient evidence to find that the council was aware of any possible violations.

Oxnard city officials reject the allegations. “I have never advised my client to violate the Brown Act,” City Atty. Gary Gillig said.

Gillig said the amount of time the Oxnard council meets behind closed doors is comparable to that of other large cities in Los Angeles County, such as Pasadena. “It doesn’t strike me as high,” he said.

Gillig suggested that Oxnard City Council spends 21% of its time behind closed doors “because we are the largest city and we have the most litigation in court.”

Among the lawsuits discussed by the council in closed session recently were a suit filed earlier this year by six mobile home park owners who oppose the city’s rent stabilization ordinance and a suit filed in 1986 by 175 residents whose homes were built over an oil-waste dump, Gillig said.

“Trust me, if you are doing your job as a city attorney, you are keeping your council informed on those issues,” he said.

Coleman said he doesn’t believe there is a correlation between Brown Act violations and the amount of time a council spends in closed session, and he declined to say whether the amount of time the five councils spent in closed session was unreasonable.

Jere Robings, executive president of the Ventura County Taxpayer’s Assn., a citizens watchdog group, agreed that there is little basis on which to compare the survey results.

“I have no concerns really, because I don’t know what is reasonable,” he said.

Camarillo City Atty. Robert Flandrick said city records may not accurately reflect the amount of time his council spent in closed session because the council occasionally has dinner during private sessions or neglects to formally announce the end of a closed session before taking a dinner break.

He estimates that the council actually spends 15 to 20% of its time in closed session.

“Camarillo is pretty efficient and effective,” he said, adding that he could only comment on meetings since August, when he was hired by the city.

Bulens said part of the reason the Ventura City Council spent only 11% of its time in closed session is that most of the council members are well-versed in city issues and require little explanation in private sessions.

“If you don’t have to explain everything, it goes much swifter,” he said.

Sellers of Thousand Oaks agreed with Bulens. But he said the main reason his council spent only 5% of its time behind closed doors is because the city does not operate its own police, fire and parks and recreation departments, which he said generate a considerable amount of litigation.

Those services are contracted out to the county, which is responsible for litigation involving those departments, he said.

Simi Valley City Atty. John Torrance said his council spent an unusually high amount of time in private meetings during the past year to discuss legal challenges to the city’s controlled-growth ordinance.

“My thinking is that 16% is high,” he said. “Our normal percentage would be half of that.”

The council also discussed suits against a city ordinance that attempts to shield from public view X-rated magazines and newspapers sold in newspaper racks, said Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton.

“That has generated a tremendous amount of suits and cross suits,” he said.

Like Camarillo, Torrance said, the Simi Valley City Council has dinner during closed sessions, but doesn’t believe it makes the closed sessions longer.

“It’s just sandwiches and pizza,” he said. “We go through the items while we are chewing away.”

CITY COUNCILS IN SESSION

Chart compares the time spent by various councils in open and closed session from May to October 1990. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors does not keep track of how long it spends in closed session.

Percent of time spent in closed session. CAMARILLO*: 26% OXNARD: 21% SIMI VALLEY: 16% VENTURA: 11% THOUSAND OAKS: 5% Total time spent in open and closed session. CAMARILLO OPEN: 48 hrs., 40 mins. Avg. 3:44 CLOSED: 17 hrs., 36 mins. Avg. 1:10 OXNARD OPEN: 85 hrs., 30 mins. Avg. 3:43 CLOSED: 22 hrs., 10 mins. Avg. 1:10 SIMI VALLEY OPEN: 74 hrs., 22 mins. Avg. 3:43 CLOSED: 14 hrs., 6 mins. Avg. :53 VENTURA OPEN: 53 hrs., 8 mins. Avg. 3:10 CLOSED: 6 hrs., 39 mins. Avg. :44 THOUSAND OAKS OPEN: 68 hrs., 33 mins. Avg. 3:36 CLOSED: 4 hrs., 9 mins. Avg. :25 * According to city officials, closed session time sometimes includes dinner breaks.